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OFFICIAL ^>olsrATIO^f. 



// 
STATEMENT 



DR. SHELDON JACKSON, 



OIF .A.3L-A.SIS:.A., 



BEFORE THE 



COMMITTEE ON THE TERRITORIES, 



Vl.''-^ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1904. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE^ 
1904. 



tJL) 

o 



STATEMENT OF DR. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 

Thursday, March 10^ lOOJf. 

The Chairman. Please state to the stenographer jour full name and 
residence. 

Doctor Jackson. My name is Sheldon Jackson; residence, Wash- 
ington, D. C, in the winter and Alaska in the summer; United States 
general agent of education in Alaska. I would state to the committee 
that 1 have been connected with the schools of Alaska from the begin- 
ning of the American occupation. I first went to Alaska in 1877, 
twentj^-seven years ago, as a Presbj^erian missionary. In 1885, under 
the organic act, 1 was appointed Government agent of education in 
Alaska, and have had charge not onh^ of the white children but of the 
native populations during all these years in school matters until the 
legislation of 1900, when the white children of the incorporated towns 
were taken out from under the Biireau of Education and were placed 
under local school boards. 

I might state, in passing, that I am interested in all the bills that are 
before the committee with regard to Alaska and, in a general way, 
approve of them. 1 am in favor of a delegate, of roads, of the helping 
of the natives, and of an increase of schools, but, naturallj^ in the few 
moments you are able to give me I wish to talk about the schools. 

The first school system was that of the missionaries of the different 
denominations of Christians that went there, commencing with 1877. 
All the schools from 1877 to 1885 were carried on by the churches. In 
1884 the organic act creating a civil government for Alaska directed 
that the Secretary of the Interior should make needful and adequate 
provision for the education of the children in Alaska without distinc- 
tion of race, and gave the Secretary of the Interior the sum of $25,000, 
when, if he had carried out the orders of Congress, it would have cost 
1200,000 the first year. For sixteen years Congress appropriated all 
the wa}^ from $15,000 to $50,000 annualh^ for the education of the chil- 
dren of Alaska, but the average appropriation for those sixteen years 
was $29,000. 

On June 6, 1900, Congress provided that there should be a license 
tax in Alaska, and allowed the incorporated towns to have 50 per cent 
of that license money to carry on their schools. Under this law sev- 
eral of the larger towns incorporated. On March 3, 1901, Congress 
supplemented or amended that act b}^ which 50 per cent of the license 
funds, outside of incorporated towns, should be given to schools out- 
side of the incorporated towns, under the Secretary of the Interior, 
in lieu of the annual appropriation which Congress had been making. 

The result was that through a decision of the Attorney-General a 
large percentage of the license funds from outside of the incorporated 
towns were used up by the courts of Alaska, especiall}^ in the second 
district (Nome). In that district the license fund, outside of incor- 



4 STATEMENT OF DE. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 

porated towns, amounted to 157,564.41, of which Congress intended 
that education would get one-half, or about 128,782.20, and education 
did not get a cent. 

Mr. Lloyd. How do you account for that? 

Doctor Jackson. Simply because the woixling of the act was that 
of ''the mone3'S turned into the Treasur}- of the United States 50 per 
cent should be given to the Secretary of the Interior for education;" 
but the Attorney-General decided that a previous law in the civil code 
of 1900 allowed the clerk who collected the license tax to use what was 
necessar}^, at the discretion of the judge of the district, for court 
expenses, and that what was left after paying court expenses should 
be paid into the Treasury of the United States. 

Mr. Lloyd. That needs remedying, does it not? 

Doctor Jackson. That was remedied on March 2, 1903. Congress 
amended the act again, and stated that 50 per cent of all moneys col- 
lected should be turned into the Treasui-y for education in Alaska. 

Mr. Lloyd. I thought 3^ou said that law was construed the other 
way. 

Doctor Jackson. No, that was the law of 1900; but to correct that 
construction of the Attorney-General, on March 2, 1903, Congress 
amended the law of 1900 so that 50 per cent of all license moneys out- 
side of incorporated towns should be paid into the Treasury for 
education. 

Mr. Lloyd. This last year, since the passage of that act, you have 
received the necessary money, or one-half? 

Doctor Jackson. We have received the whole 50 per cent, I believe; 
but that has been verj^ little. 

Mr. Robinson. How much is it? 

Doctor Jackson. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, we 
received only 119,742.62 for schools all over Alaska outside of incor- 
porated towns. The present Congress has introduced two bills, Sen- 
ate bill 8337 and House bill 10435 (similar bills), proposing to take the 
white children of Alaska and place them under the governor of Alaska 
as superintendent ex officio, and to use 25 per cent of the license 
funds collected in Alaska outside of incorporated towns for the carry- 
ing on of those schools. 

Mr. Lloyd. Does the Bureau of Education agree to it? 

Doctor Jackson. It agrees to it, j^es, sir; it is satisf actor}' to the 
Commissioner of Education. 

Mr. Lloyd. Do you think it is the right thing to do ? 

Doctor Jackson. Yes; that is, I am willing to have it done. The 
white men who pa^^ the taxes and the license fees say, and justly: 
" We are paying 25 per cent for education, and we wish that expended 
for our own children. Let the native children in Alaska be educated 
by the Government, as the}^ have been in Oklahoma Territory or 
Indian Territory, or elsewhere in the United States, by appropriations 
from Congress." 

Mr. Lloyd. Has Congress made an appropriation for the native 
children ? 

Doctor Jackson. Not yet. It has not passed the bills as yet. 

Mr. Lloyd. That bill provides for the appropriation? 

Doctor Jackson. That bill provides that the white children shall be 
educated in schools to be supported by the license fund, and the native 



STATEMENT OF DR. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 5 

children shall remain as they are, under the Bureau of Education, to 
be supported by an annual appropriation of Congress. 

Mr. Robinson. That is, that changes the act? 

Doctor Jackson. That Congress shall give the Secretary of the 
Interior certain amounts for the education of the native children of 
Alaska. 

Mr. Lloyd. With j^our experience in the difficult}^ of getting appro- 
priations through, do you not think there is danger of that 25 percent 
being cut off ? 

Doctor Jackson. Well, I do not know. In the sixteen years that 
we received an annual appropriation we fared better than we have 
since under the license sj^stem. When spring opens, and we have to 
employ our teachers, we have no idea of the amount of money we 
will have to work with during the year. The license fees come in 
from three months to nine months after they are collected, and we do 
not know what we are going to receive. We are compelled to estimate 
the amount that the bureau of education will probably receive, and 
shape our expenses accordingly. 

Mr. Lloyd. Those schools you speak of are for white children? 

Doctor Jackson. For whites and natives, under the present system, 
outside of incorporated to^vns. 

Mr. Lloyd. You do not teach them together, do you ? 

Doctor Jackson. No, sir, 

Mr. Lloyd. You have separate schools? 

Doctor Jackson. As a rule they are separate. In some of the native 
towns where there are only three or four white children, and for the 
sake of getting any schooling at all the white children are glad to go 
into the native school; but where there is a sufficient number, as for 
instance at Juneau before it became an incorporated town, the bureau 
of education maintained separate schools for the white and native 
children, as it does now at Sitka. Where there are enough white chil- 
dren the bureau of education organizes a white school, and if there 
are a number of native children at the same place it also has a native 
school. 

Mr. Lloyd. What kind of a system could be inaugurated bv which 
3^ou could have a definite fund, so that you could know just where vou 
stand? 

Doctor Jackson. I do not know of any sj^stem by which you could 
do it, except by legislation that should fix the amount to be appropri- 
ated by Congress. Then when the appropriation is made we would 
know what we are to have, and we would guage ourselves accordingly. 
If the amount was insufficient we would close some schools, or if the 
amount was ample we could increase the number of schools. 

Mr. RoDEY. What would be a reasonable, amount for the education 
of all the Territory ? 

Doctor Jackson. We are talking about the natives now. If S. 
3728 goes through as it has been unanimously recommended to the 
Senate by the Senate committee, the education of the white children 
of Alaska will be eliminated from under the care of the Government. 
The Secretary of the Interior then will simply have the Eskimo and 
native children of Alaska to educate, and $100,000 will do that. It 
will not onl}^ do that, but it will relieve the destitution that you have 
been hearing of for the last few years. Not only that, but it will civil- 



6 STATEMENT OF DB. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 

ize those natives and make them useful assistants of the white men 
who go there. 

Mr. Lloyd. Your suggestion is that, in addition to this legislation, 
which provides the necessary means for the white children, you may 
have an additional 1100,000 for all the natives? 

Doctor Jackson. Yes, sir. As soon as either the Senate or the 
House passes the Senate bill or this House bill that 3"ou have — it is 
House bill 10-1:35. But we would like to be permitted to have the 
House bill amended so as to be like the Senate bill, which is before the 
Senate and which will probably be the first one reached. "' They will 
probably reach it before the House reaches their bill. The House bill 
is No. 10435. 

In this connection I want to call attention to section 1 of the House 
bill 

Mr. Robinson. Before 3^ou go into the details I would like to ask 
you a question. 1 understand 3^ou have a process now that will yield 
you — about how much? 

Doctor Jackson. Fift}^ per cent of the license fees outside of the 
incorporated towns should jdeld this 3" ear about 150,000; but the bills 
now before Congress propose giving that to the white schools. 

Mr. Robinson. I am talking about the present S3^stem. How much 
do you hope it will 3deld? 

Doctor Jackson. Hereafter it ought to 3deld 150,000 a 3^ear. 

Mr. Robinson. That will yield, then, a fund for the education of 

Doctor elACKSON. Whites and natives. 

Mr. Robinson. Together? 

Doctor Jackson. In separate schools, as now. 

Mr. Robinson. Under the S3^stem 3^ou now have? 

Doctor Jackson. This system has been running eighteen 3^ears. 

Mr. Robinson. Your purpose is to segregate the whites and the 
natives ? 

Doctor Jackson. That is the purpose of Senate bill 3Y28 and H. R. 
10435. 

Mr. Robinson. And to allow this fund, under the present system, 
to stand for the whites, and let Congress take care of the natives? 

Doctor Jackson. Yes. 

Mr. Robinson. Have you any objection to the present school S3"S- 
tem, outside of this effort that is made to secure relief directly^ from 
the Treasuiy for the native education? 

Doctor Jackson. No; we have no objection. It is working well for 
the schools already established, but it is not sufficient to maintain all 
the schools that should be established at once. 

Mr. Robinson. Then I take it this is an effort that is made to use the 
fund that is now used for the natives as well as the whites, for the 
whites, and let Congress take care of the natives. 

Doctor Jackson. Yes, sir; it remedies a complaint that we have all 
over Alaska. The white men say, "We are paying the mone3^ and 
you are educating the natives, while man3" white children are denied 
school privileges. " 

Mr. Robinson. The whites who have gone there think the3^ ought 
not to be charged with the burden, but that the whole people of the 
United States ought to be charged with it? 

a S. 3728 passed the Senate March 10, 1904. 



STATEMENT OF DK. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 7 

Doctor Jackson. That is the belief. It is natural that the whites 
who pay the school mouey ought to have the benefit of it for their 
children. 

Mr. Robinson. It is not because of any defect in the school system, 
which is perfectly satisfactory to you? 

Doctor Jackson. I would answer no to the first question and yes to 
the second. 

Mr. Robinson. Covering both natives and whites? 

Doctor Jackson. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Are there anj^ further questions? 

Mr. McGuiRE. Doctor Jackson was referring to a section of the bill. 

Doctor Jackson. Yes. In House bill 10435, on the first page, sec- 
tion 1, lines 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 — the Senate have struck out those lines in 
the bill reported to the Senate (S. 3728) simply because of the previous 
inequality of the court taking out all the mone}^ it needs first and 
then paying the balance to the Treasuiy, which we have alread}" found 
from actual experience yielded a fund insuflicient for the schools. To 
remedy this the act was amended by Congress March 2, 1903; but the 
objectionable feature is reintroduced by an oversight in the first bills 
(S. 3337 and H. R. 10135) which were ofi:ered in the Senate and House of 
Representatives. The Senate committee saw the mistake and corrected 
it before reporting the bill to the Senate for action (S. 3728), and my 
purpose in calling your attention to it is that this committee ma}^ also 
correct the House bill (H. R. 10435) in the same wa}^ 

Then in section 7 of the same bill — page 11 of the House bill. Both 
bills originally proposed taking the education of the Eskimos and 
natives of Alaska out of the hands of the Commissioner of Education 
and placing them under the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The 
natives of Alaska are on an entirely difierent footing from the natives 
in any other region in the United States. There has never been an 
Indian agent or an Indian reservation in Alaska. The natives of 
Alaska have never been under the Indian laws of the country, with the 
exception of the law as to the sale of liquors and breech-loading fire- 
arms. That clause, however, concerning breech-loading firearms has 
been repealed, so that the only restriction of the Indian laws of the 
United States over Alaska is as to the sale of liquor to natives. 

The Bureau of Education has, since 1885, had charge of the schools 
of the Alaska natives. We think it has built up a system which while 
not perfect any more than any human system is perfect, jet is work- 
ing successfully, which has produced good results, and which it would 
take any other department of the Government some years to bring to 
the same efficiency. We simply ask that if the native schools are seg- 
regated from the white schools they shall be left under the Secretarj^ 
of the Interior and the Bureau of Education. We have shown in our 
southeast Alaska schools the fruit of the present school system. There 
is no destitution to-day among any of the native population of south- 
east Alaska 'dny more than you find destitution in an}^ white village or 
towns of the countiy in proportion to the population. There are shift- 
less people of every race; but most of the native population of south- 
east Alaska are self-supporting and have always been. The}' have 
never received a dollar of help from the Government in any form or 
shape except in the matter of giving them an education. They are a 
self-supporting hard-working people. The majority of the 3'oung peo- 
ple that have gone through the schools are making good citizens. 



8 STATEMENT OF DR. SHELDOISr JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 

What has been done in southeast Alaska can be done in the same 
length of time in northwestern Alaska. The newspaper reports of des- 
titution among the Eskimos that are given to the country will cease if 
the Government will give the Bureau of Education an adequate appro- 
priation to go on with the system ^vhich the}" have learned bj^ experi- 
ence to be the best for that countr3^ 

Mr. Lloyd. How do you overcome the destitution? Is that condi- 
tion overcome by education? 

Doctor Jackson. Largely by industrial education in connection with 
the primary literary education and the fatherly oversight of teachers 
sincerely interested in the welfare of the natives. It has been tried in 
a number of the missions and institutions of different churches, and it 
has been tried in a number of the Government schools, and it has 
largely eliminated the question of destitution among the natives where 
tried. 

Mr. Lloyd. What is the effect of the Government schools upon the 
church schools? 

Doctor Jackson. When the public school was started the mission 
orphanages closed their schoolrooms and sent their children to the public 
school. For instance, at Unalaska the Methodist Church built up an 
orphanage and home and the Russian Orthodox Church had a paro- 
chial school. When the Government escablished a public school the 
Methodists closed their schoolroom and sent the children to the pub- 
lic school. The Russian Church closed their school at noon and sent 
the pupils in the afternoon to the public school. Both churches con- 
tinue to feed, clothe, and train in the industries the children in their 
orphanage or home, but for literary training they come to the Gov- 
ernment school. The children of the Methodist orphanage and the 
Russian orphanage all come to the Government schools for their book 
learning. That is the case in many other places. The missions received 
some children from their parents, and in 1900 took a larger number, 
made orphans by the epidemic of that year, which caused the death 
of one-third of the native population on the shores of Bering Sea. 
There were hundreds of children left without parents or relatives, and 
the missions took care of them. The missions simply had to gather 
them in, and now the Government is giving secular education to the 
children of those missions. There is no conflict and no competition. 
The work is harmonious between the missions and the Government 
teachers. 

The Chairman. The Chair desires to make a suggestion. I presume 
it will be the desire of the committee to rise about half -past 11 o'clock, 
will it not, to-day? I understand from various members of the com- 
mittee that they desire to adjourn at 11 o'clock. Now, according to 
the watch belonging to the Chair, it is about 18 minutes of 11. I never 
can be quite sure of this watch; but there are one or two important 
matters, and I want to suggest, without objection, that while the Chair 
does not want to cut you out of j^our peroration, Doctor Jackson, so 
to speak, without objection from the committee, if there are certain 
important matters which you can not include in your remarks this 
morning that you might extend them in your remarks when you 
revise them for printing. If there be no objection that might be done. 

Doctor Jackson. In reply to that I will say that I have already pre- 
pared a statement which I was going to ask leave to incorporate in my 



STATEMENT OF DE. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 9 

remarks concerning a method for permanently relieving the natives of 
northern and central Alaska. 

The Chairman. If there is no objection that will be done. The 
Chair hears no objection. 

The statement above referred to is as follows: 

JPermanent relief of the Eskimos and other natives of northern and 

central AJasJia. 

For some months past the newspapers have from time to time pub- 
lished cases of destitution among the Eskimos and the natives of north- 
ern and central Alaska, also the ravages of consumption and other 
diseases, and the demoralization caused b}'' the proximit}^ to the saloons 
that are being established in the new mining settlement;:^. While these 
newspaper reports are doubtless more or less exaggerated, yet from 
the official reports of Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston to the Adjutant- 
General United States Arm}^, Washington, D. C; of Mr. James W. 
Witten, special inspector of the General Land Office, to the Secretar}' 
of the Interior (both of which reports are printed in the appendix of 
the report of the Secretarj^ of the Interior for the fiscal year ending- 
June 30, 1903); from interyiews had with members of the committee 
of the United States Senate that visited Alaska during the past summer, 
also from my personal knowledge, there is a certain amount of desti- 
tution, a prevalence of consumption, and demoralization from liquor 
that should receive attention from the General Government. 

This raised the question what that attention should be and how these 
natives can be made valuable helpers and assistants in the develop- 
ment of the countrj^ b}" the white men now there engaged in mining 
operations. 

Any successful method of accomplishing such desirable results must 
keep clearl}^ before it the aim to prepare the natives to become a help 
to the immigrants who come from the States for the purpose of con- 
ducting mining operations. There are two things which the native 
may be taught to do which will enable him to help the immigrant: 
First, he may be taught how to create a suppl}" of cheap food; second, 
he may be taught how to supph^ a cheap transportation by means of 
reindeer. It is known that in the river valleys certain garden vege- 
tables raaj'' be produced in large quantities even up to the Arctic 
Circle and for fifty miles bej'^ond it. The native knows how to take 
fish from the rivers and from the sea for his family use, and with 
proper training can be made an equally successful fishermen for the 
market. 

The experience of the past twelve years has proved that he can also 
become skillful in raising reindeer for food. With the gradual disap- 
pearance of the caribou and moose in sections of Alaska and the diffi- 
cult}^ and expense of bringing beef and mutton from the States to the 
inland mining camps, it is of great importance that the Eskimo be 
trained to raise reindeer with which to supph' the immigrant miner 
with fresh meat. 

When, in the winter of 1897-98, 100 sailors engaged in whaling- 
were imprisoned in the ice off Point Barrow and in danger of perish- 
ing with scurv}'^ and -starvation, they were saved by the reindeer herd 
driven by Eskimos from Bering Strait to Point Barrow and slaughtered 
for food. 



10 STATEMENT OF DE. SHELDON JACKSON, OF ALASKA. 

Already 56 Eskimos and 1 Indian (nearly all of whom have served 
9 five years' apprenticeship learning the business) own 3,700 deer. 
Eeindeer multiply rapidly. From the 1,291 Siberian reindeer imported 
between 1892 and 1903 and from their natural increase 7,826 fawns 
have been born in Alaska. 

The Eskimo has always been skillful in driving dogs, and now, under 
instruction, he is proving equally skillful in driving reindeer, and upon 
various occasions when the opportunity has offered has invariably 
demonstrated his ability to successfully transport with reindeer mails, 
freight, and passengers between mining camps. Under contract with 
the Post-Office Department the United States mail has been carried by 
reindeer teams on the four postal routes between St. Michael and 
Kotzebue, Eaton and Nome, Teller and Deering, and Kotzebue and 
Point Barrow (this latter being the most northern mail route in the 
world). With the increase of reindeer and trained native teamsters 
such service will become universal in northern and central Alaska. 

When the native has thus become useful to the white man b}^ sup- 
plying the markets with fish and fresh meat, and when he has become 
•herdsman and teamster with reindeer he has not onl}^ assisted the 
white man in solving the problem of turning to use of civilization the 
vast territory of Alaska, but he has also solved his own problem. If 
useful to the white man as a self-respecting and industrious citizen he 
has become a permanent stay and prop to the civilization and his 
future is provided for. 

The conclusion resulting from this is that the native must be taught 
in school how to speak English and be trained in industrial schools 
into the simple arts of agriculture and fishing and of reindeer herding 
and teaming with a view to provide cheap food and cheap transporta- 
tion for the use of the immigrant. 

To accomplish such training it is important that an increased num- 
ber of small industrial schools shall be established at centers conven- 
ient to the native population. 

At these schools in addition to elementary instruction in the Eng-lish 
language there shall be given special instruction (a) in making fish nets 
and in adopting improved methods of catching and prepaiing fish for 
family use and for sale; (b) in the care and raising of reindeer and in 
the breaking and use in transportation; (c) wherever the conditions of 
soil and climate will allow in the cultivation of hardy vegetables. 

While destitution is not at present ver}^ widespread among the 
natives, yet it maj^ be wise to have at each of these schools a small 
supply of food and clothing to afford temporary relief for ver}'- special 
cases of destitution. The principal of the school can be made a bonded 
officer of the Government and be charged with the care and distribu- 
tion of such supplies without additional expense to the Government. 

The Secretary of the Interior has again and again called the atten- 
tion of Congress to the need of hospitals for the natives. These should 
be provided for at once. But when the hospitals are erected they will 
necessarily be accessible to comparative!}^ limited areas. In addition 
to the proposed hospitals, very important service may be rendered 
and a greatl}?' increased number of natives benefited by the employ- 
ment of a plwsician in connection with each of the industrial schools. 
This plan has been in successful operation at several of the missionary 
stations in Alaska, and also at the Government agency where tried. 

LB S '05 ^ 



